Pro-Harris media scrambles to erase ‘Border Czar’ from her resume as GOP highlights her record

With Vice President Kamala Harris poised to become the Democratic standard bearer, the media has rushed to flush her title of “border czar” down a memory hole, a role upon which Republicans have seized to launch a volley of attacks on her record.

Unrelated to the Bulgarian or Russian monarchies, the title of “czar” refers to an administration’s policy lead on a specific issue. It is not an official title, but often serves as a shorthand for an established, or temporarily created, executive branch position.

Harris received the appointment from the White House in early 2021, at which time media outlets did refer to her as the “border czar.” The exact parameters of her role were somewhat unclear, however, and Harris’s then-chief spokeswoman, Symone Sanders, insisted at the time that Harris was “not doing the border” and would "take on the diplomatic effort, with Mexico and countries in the northern triangle to address the root causes of migration."

Despite “not doing the border,” Harris ultimately visited the border city of El Paso, Texas, in June 2021 and toured a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) migrant processing center. During that visit, moreover, Harris herself linked her efforts with the situation at the southern border, saying "[m]y trip to Guatemala and Mexico was about addressing the root causes… So the work that we have to do is the work of addressing the cause, the root causes. Otherwise, we will continue to see the effect of what is happening at the border.”

But the Biden administration has faced considerable scrutiny over its handling of immigration and border security. More than 10 million people have illegally entered the U.S. under the Biden administration’s tenure, according to CBP figures.

Republicans, for their part, have latched on to the “border czar” label for Harris, doing so well before she emerged as the presumptive Democratic nominee. The designation faced relatively little pushback for years, however, though her ascension to top-ticket status evidently has media allies rushing to erase one of the more embarrassing listings from her resume.

Most of the attempted walk backs have rested on the assertion that her position did not involve border security directly and was instead focused on efforts to curtail emigration from Latin American nations, but some experts don't expect that message to resonate with the public.

"I have more trust and faith in the American people. They know what czar means, right?" asked former acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said on the "Just the News, No Noise" television show. "And they know that she's failed at that job, and now, as they're trying to rewrite history to say, 'well, she really wasn't in charge of border security. She was just in charge of the political and diplomatic aspects of trying to figure out their root causes.' I think American people call BS on that. They know it's a complete lie, and it's going to be tough for her to be able to come back with a good answer."

Vulnerability on immigration

President Joe Biden currently boasts a 31.5% approval rating on immigration in the RealClearPolitics polling average, while 62.2% disapprove of his handling of the issue. That metric places the subject among his least popular of issues, with only his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict earning lower marks in the RPC aggregates.

While Harris and Biden are separate individuals, of course, the administration has long highlighted Harris’s place within the White House, making extensive use of the term “Biden-Harris Administration” and her, even nominal, status as the administration’s policy chief on the matter is sure to present a line of attack for her detractors. 

Walking it back: She’s not the “border czar”

In recent days, left-wing surrogates have evidently become aware of the title’s potential to attract criticism of the administration’s immigration policies to Harris directly and have attempted to separate her from the position.

During a Tuesday roundtable with former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., on CNN, former Obama advisor and CNN commentator David Axelrod attempted to correct Zelding and claim that “she wasn’t the border czar. She was assigned to go to the countries that were the source of these immigrants and try to work with them to remove inducements for people to come here.”

“But she never was the border czar. She wasn’t in charge of the border,” he went on. 

Zeldin disagreed with Axelrod’s assessment and highlighted the administration’s policies repealing Trump-era border and immigration guidelines.

“It’s gonna be very hard for Kamala Harris right now to say ‘I wasn’t the border czar. I’m not responsible for these policies.’ She hasn’t spoken up at all against the implementation of any of this,” Zeldin added.

Kamala Harris was Joe Biden's border czar.

As border czar, she implemented disastrous policies that flooded our nation with millions of illegal aliens.

She owns the entire crisis and has spoken up against exactly NONE of the administration’s failed border policies. pic.twitter.com/FyPAx9r5Fe

— Lee Zeldin (@LeeMZeldin) July 24, 2024

Axios tries to erase history

Left-leaning news outlet Axios on Wednesday attempted to argue a similar point to Axelrod, saying that Harris "never actually had" the title of “border czar” and that the designation had merely become a derogatory label en vogue with her Republican opponents.

The outlet further highlighted that “[i]nternally, Harris's team and her office made clear her responsibilities began and ended with the factors driving people to leave Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.”

But Axios previously referred to Harris as the “border czar,” and the pivot on her status appears to be relatively recent.

"Harris, appointed by Biden as border czar, said she would be looking at the 'root causes' that drive migration," the outlet wrote in 2021. The Wednesday article and 2021 article were written by different reporters.

Conservative pundits noticed the contrast between this week’s article and the outlet’s prior coverage of the “border czar” position.

Axios’ 2024 article now features an "Editor’s Note" reading tagged to the story that says “This article has been updated and clarified to note that Axios was among the news outlets that incorrectly labeled Harris a 'border czar' back in 2021.”

PolitiFact

PolitiFact this week addressed claims that Biden appointed Harris to serve as “border czar” and tasked her with curtailing illegal immigration.

The outlet rated the claim as “mostly false,” asserting that Biden had asked Harris to serve as “chief diplomatic officer with Central American countries" and that the task of border security had remained with the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Other outlets

CNN’s Dana Bash, moreover, recently attempted to shut down the claim that Harris was named “border czar.”

“I just want to do a little bit of record-correcting… Harris was put in charge as you said earlier of combating the roots of immigration. She was not and is not the border czar,” she said.

NEW: The media is now claiming VP Kamala Harris was never the ‘Border Czar’ as the Trump campaign starts ramping up attacks.

You don’t hate the media enough.

March 24, 2021: “Biden puts Harris in charge of border crisis” - Axios.

July 24, 2024: “The Trump campaign and… pic.twitter.com/tN6uMeL8CL

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 24, 2024

Time Magazine also joined the chorus of media who want to protect Harris from taking responsibility for a crisis she was asked to manage by President Biden. Calling the title "misleading", Time now says that her role was simply to "focus on examining and improving the underlying conditions in the Northern Triangle of Central America—El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras." 

As part of her role, Harris paid a single visit to the southern border in El Paso, Texas, in June 2021.

The label isn’t going anywhere

The Trump campaign, for its part, has focused on the “border czar” label, releasing an ad this week calling here a “complete failure as border czar.” Included in the ad were clips of Harris discussing the situation at the border interspersed with reports of criminal activity from illegal immigrants.

Kamala Harris is a complete failure as border czar.

Weak. Failed. Dangerously Liberal. pic.twitter.com/xUHuYpEENW

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) July 23, 2024

The Trump campaign subsequently issued a press release highlighting a litany of articles from Harris’s appointment in 2021.

“Kamala’s campaign is scrambling to rewrite history on her failures as Border Czar, but we have the receipts,” Trump Campaign Senior Advisor Danielle Alvarez said. “Border Czar Harris owns the bloodbath at the southern border, including the rape, murder, and brutal assault of women like Rachel Morin and Laken Riley.”

“Try as they might, Kamala and her allies can’t change reality: she is responsible for the flood of migrant crime and deadly fentanyl into our country, and Americans will hold her accountable when they vote for President Trump in November,” Alvarez continued.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X.